Your 20’s is a very important period of your life. It’s during those years that you’ll start making decisions about your life and your career that will affect you for years to come. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they’re in their 20’s is not considering their financial future. They think that it doesn’t matter because they’re only young and they’ll deal with all of that in later life. But the sooner you start getting into good financial habits and planning for the future, the easier things will be when you’re older. These are the 3 financial goals you should reach before you turn 30.

Clear Your Debts

Having a lot of debts can really hold you back, but when you’re younger you’ll probably have to borrow money. At the beginning of your career when you aren’t earning that much money, it can be difficult to make ends meet and you might need to use credit cards. That’s fine, but if you carry that debt on into later life, it’ll make it a lot harder to meet financial goals like buying a house. That’s why now is the time to clear them. If you aren’t earning that much money it’s going to be hard but you’ve got to try to find extra income and pay off those loans. That means budgeting properly and cutting out all of those unnecessary expenses. You can also find extra side jobs to help you bring in a little extra cash and work hard so you can progress at work and hopefully get a pay increase. By clearing your debts now, you’ll enter your 30’s in a strong financial position, ready to buy a house, travel, and start a family.

Invest Money

People often think of investing as something that’s reserved for people with loads of money but that isn’t true. There are plenty of investment opportunities that don’t require that much cash up front. There’s no need to wait until you’re earning a huge wage, you can start investing right away. If you start now, you can put a little bit of money in and watch it grow over the years. By the time you come to retire, you’ll have a healthy savings account. But if you wait until later life, you’ll have to put in a lot more cash up front to get the same returns.

Learn Good Financial Habits

The habits that you pick up now are likely to continue in later life so you need to make sure that they’re good ones. Cutting back on your spending is a lot easier when you’re in your 20’s than it will be when you’ve got a mortgage and a family to worry about. If you only start trying to be responsible with your money after you land yourself in financial trouble, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. Now is the time to start writing a strict budget, reducing the amount that you borrow and make sure that you’re never missing any payments.

If you can reach these financial goals before you turn 30, you’re far less likely to run into financial trouble in later life.